Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Suspended Solids Concentrations in Tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary Watershed in 2013

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the Great Bay Estuary are a growing concern. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) calculates the nitrogen load from tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary for its State of Our Estuaries reports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collect representative data on nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment concentrations in tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary in 2013. The study design followed the tributary sampling design which was implemented by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services between 2001 and 2007 and by the University of New Hampshire between 2008 and 2012, so as to provide comparable data to the previous loading estimates

Shellfish Tissue Monitoring in Piscataqua Region Estuaries 2010 and 2011

Conducted by a committee of Canadian and US government and university scientists, Gulfwatch examines the effects of decades of development and industrialization on the water quality of the Gulf as it relates to human health primarily through assessing contaminant exposure of marine organisms. Gulfwatch scientists collect blue mussels at over 60 US and Canadian sites Gulfwide, and analyze the organisms’ tissue for potentially harmful levels and concentrations of toxins including heavy metals, chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Shellfish Tissue Monitoring in Piscataqua Region Estuaries 2012

Originally conducted by a committee of Canadian and US governments and university scientists, Gulfwatch examined the effects of decades of development and industrialization on the water quality of the Gulf of Maine as it relates to human health primarily through assessing contaminant exposure of marine organisms from 1993 to 2010. The NH Gulfwatch Program continues these efforts by collecting blue mussels at two sites in the Great Bay Estuary and one in the Hampron-Seabrook Estuary, and analyzes the organisms’ tissue for potentially harmful levels and concentrations of toxins including heavy metals, chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). During the 2012 sampling season, mussels were collected at three sampling locations in New Hampshire and Maine (MECC, NHHS and NHDP)

Shellfish Tissue Monitoring in Piscataqua Region Estuaries 2013

Originally conducted by the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment from 1993 to 2011, the Gulfwatch Program examined trends in the water quality of the Gulf of Maine by monitoring toxic contaminant concentrations in the tissues of shellfish. Starting in 2012 the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) continued this program in the Piscataqua Region. Each year, PREP collects blue mussels at three sites: Dover Point, NH (NHDP), Clark Cove on Seavey Island, ME (MECC), and Hampton-Seabrook Harbor (NHHS). The mussel tissue is analyzed to determine the concentrations of toxic contaminantss including heavy metals, chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Shellfish Tissue Monitoring in Piscataqua Region Estuaries 2010: Final Report

Gulfwatch examines the effects of decades of development and industrialization on the water quality of the Gulf as it relates to human health primarily through assessing contaminant exposure of marine organisms. Gulfwatch scientists collect blue mussels at over 60 US and Canadian sites Gulfwide, and analyze the organisms’ tissue for potentially harmful levels and concentrations of toxins including heavy metals, chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). New Hampshire increased the number of Gulfwatch sampling locations from two sites per year in 1997 to an average of five sites per year from 1998-2010. The increased spatial coverage provides comprehensive information for contaminant concentrations throughout the New Hampshire estuarine waters. All samples collected for the Gulfwatch monitoring program, from the Canadian provinces as well as the New England states involved, have been sent to the same laboratories for analysis. All of the samples have been analyzed at the same time in the same laboratories in an effort to reduce error and variability. This practice has ensured the consistency that was necessary to allow a region-wide assessment of the health of the Gulf. During the 2010 sampling season, mussels were collected at six sampling locations in New Hampshire and Maine (MECC, NHHS, NHDP, NHRH, NHPI and NHLH). Project Goals and Objectives The goal of this project was to provide data for two PREP indicators of estuarine condition: TOX1 and TOX3. These two indicators report on “Shellfish tissue concentrations relative to FDA standards” and “Trends in shellfish tissue contaminant concentrations”, respectively. Both of these indicators depend on data from the Gulfwatch Program. In particular, TOX3 requires annual data at benchmark sites to assess trends. In 2010, PREP supported the collection and analysis of tissue samples from benchmark mussel sites in Hampton-Seabrook Harbor and Dover Point

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Suspended Solids Concentrations in Tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary Watershed in 2010

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the Great Bay Estuary are a growing concern. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) calculates the nitrogen load from tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary for its State of the Estuaries reports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collect representative data on nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment concentrations in tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary in 2010. The study design followed the tributary sampling design which was implemented by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services between 2001 and 2007 and by the University of New Hampshire in 2008 and 2009, so as to provide comparable data to the previous loading estimates

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Suspended Solids Concentrations in Tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary Watershed in 2011

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the Great Bay Estuary are a growing concern. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) calculates the nitrogen load from tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary for its State of the Estuaries reports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collect representative data on nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment concentrations in tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary in 2011. The study design followed the tributary sampling design which was implemented by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services between 2001 and 2007 and by the University of New Hampshire in 2008 and 2010, so as to provide comparable data to the previous loading estimates

Shellfish Tissue Monitoring in Piscataqua Region Estuaries 2010 and 2011

The goal of this project was to provide data for two PREP indicators of estuarine condition: TOX1 and TOX3. These two indicators report on “Shellfish tissue concentrations relative to FDA standards” and “Trends in shellfish tissue contaminant concentrations”, respectively. Both of these indicators depend on data from the Gulfwatch Program. In particular, TOX3 requires annual data at benchmark sites to assess trends. In 2010 and 2011, PREP supported the collection and analysis of tissue samples from benchmark mussel sites in Hampton-Seabrook Harbor and Dover Point

Great Bay Nitrogen Non-Point Source Study

The Great Bay Estuary is 21 square miles of tidal waters located in southeastern New Hampshire. It is one of 28 “estuaries of national significance” established under the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program. The estuary is experiencing the signs of eutrophication, specifically, low dissolved oxygen, macroalgae blooms, and declining eelgrass habitat (DES, 2012). Sixty-eight percent of the nitrogen that ends up in the Great Bay Estuary originates from sources spread across the watershed; the remainder derives from direct discharges of municipal wastewater treatment facilities (DES, 2010; PREP, 2013). In this report, these sources of nitrogen are called non-point sources and consist of atmospheric deposition, fertilizers, human waste disposed into septic systems, and animal waste. The purpose of this study is to determine how much nitrogen each non-point source type contributes to the estuary. The nitrogen loads from municipal wastewater treatment facilities have been reported elsewhere (DES, 2010; PREP, 2012; PREP, 2013) and, therefore, are not included in this study except to provide context. The intended use of this study is for planning purposes, and is not meant for regulatory allocations or specific reduction requirements. The results of the model may be useful for towns or watershed groups for prioritizing nitrogen reduction efforts or as a starting point for more detailed studies of non-point sources. However, more detailed inventories of non-point sources will be needed to track the effects of nitrogen reduction efforts in smaller areas. In addition, the model makes no conclusions about the benefits of nitrogen reductions to receiving waters or overall estuarine health

cDNA-RNA subtractive hybridization reveals increased expression of mycocerosic acid synthase in intracellular Mycobacterium bovis BCG.

Identifying genes that are differentially expressed by Mycobacterium bovis BCG after phagocytosis by macrophages will facilitate the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of host cell-intracellular pathogen interactions. To identify such genes a cDNA-total RNA subtractive hybridization strategy has been used that circumvents the problems both of limited availability of bacterial RNA from models of infection and the high rRNA backgrounds in total bacterial RNA. The subtraction products were used to screen a high-density gridded Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomic library. Sequence data were obtained from 19 differential clones, five of which contained overlapping sequences for the gene encoding mycocerosic acid synthase (mas). Mas is an enzyme involved in the synthesis of multi-methylated long-chain fatty acids that are part of phthiocerol dimycocerosate, a major component of the complex mycobacterial cell wall. Northern blotting and primer extension data confirmed up-regulation of mas in intracellular mycobacteria and also revealed a putative extended -10 promoter structure and a long untranslated upstream region 5' of the mas transcripts, containing predicted double-stranded structures. Furthermore, clones containing overlapping sequences for furB, groEL-2, rplE and fadD28 were identified and the up-regulation of these genes was confirmed by Northern blot analysis. The cDNA-RNA subtractive hybridization enrichment and high density gridded library screening, combined with selective extraction of bacterial mRNA represents a valuable approach to the identification of genes expressed during intra-macrophage residence for bacteria such as M. bovis BCG and the pathogenic mycobacterium, M. tuberculosis